Miner Sentence Completion Scale measures of managerial motivation for a sample of Oregon entrepreneurs were compared with interview data on entrepreneur and firm type using a system of differentiation derived from the Enterprising Man (Collins, Moore and Unwalla, 1964) research. Certain relationships between aspects of managerial motivation and firm expansion and growth were found. In addition, the overall level of managerial motivation among the entrepreneurs relative to corporate managers was found to be low, and the previously noted association between an opportunistic entrepreneurial type and growthoriented firms was confirmed. These findings are discussed in the context of organizational life cycle theory with special reference to the early stages of transition from entrepreneurial to bureaucratic forms and various typologies of entrepreneurs. It appears that under certain circumstances growth may not require a shift in leadership style, but that in some important respects entrepreneurial and bureaucratic systems are managerially distinct.

The Miner Sentence Completion Scale-Form T and an innovative technology survey were administered to applicants for development grants under the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Program. Data were obtained from 118 entrepreneurs who had founded their firms and from a comparison group of 41 manager/scientists who had submitted applications but were not founders. Measures of firm growth were developed from the innovative technology survey to serve as dependent variables. The MSCS-T has been developed to measure the motivational variables of a task theory that closely parallels achievement motivation theory. Task motivation exhibited a substantial relationship with the indexes of firm growth; it also differentiated between entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurs. Thus, this article presents a new research direction that differs substantially from previous efforts to use the hierarchic theory of managerial motivation and the MSCS-Form H to study the motivation of entrepreneurs. 554This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

The authors used follow-up data on the growth of 59 firms contacted over 5 years after their entrepreneurs were tested with the Miner Sentence Completion Scale-Form T to test hypotheses derived from task theory. The results lend support for the predictive criterion-related validity of overall task motivation, a desire for personal achievement, a desire to innovate, and a desire to plan and set goals, but not for a desire to avoid risks.

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Data for 1972-73 (N ~ 86) and 1980 (N = 124) were added to previously published findings for 1960-61 (N = 287) and 1967-68 (N = 129) showing that managerial motivation as measured by Form H of the Miner Sentence Completion Scale (MSCS) continued to decline into the early 1970's and then apparently leveled off. These findings for University of Oregon undergraduate business students were substantiated using similar samples from Georgia State University obtained in 1975 (N = 74) and 1979 (N = 51), as well as comparable groups from other universities. Previously existing differences between male and female business students, which showed that females obtained considerably lower scores on the MSCS, have now disappeared. The overall results continue to indicate major managerial talent shortages for some years to come. Questions were raised regarding alternative findings that appear to indicate that managerial motivation may have experienced a resurgence in the business schools in recent years. In this and other analyses attention is given to differences in trends over time among the various subscales of the MSCS. The data indicate that decreases have been most conspicuous on attitudes toward authority, competitiveness, assertiveness, and the desire to perform routine communications and decision making functions-all important contributors to performance in managerial roles.